Print. Some of these companies were adding their own "Americanized" supplements, but none of them reproduced the Tenth. [10] This edition was a commercial failure, losing Sears roughly $1.75 million, after which Sears gave it back to Hooper's widow, Harriett Meeker Cox, and her brother, William J. Cox, who ran the company from 1923 to 1928. There's one set on Abebooks ( World Book Encyclopedia) for $485. An index to the entire set was created that year as well, and was the first of its kind for Britannica. RECOMMENDED: The 10 most intriguing tablets of 2012. This is mainly due to the increase in population of, and sales in, the United States, which were mere colonies with low population when Britannica started out in 1768. A few of the articles without crossheads, such as Money at 15 pages and Mahometans at 17 pages, exceeded in length some of the treatises. Encyclopaedia Britannica cost $1400 for a full 32-volume print edition. Many illustrious contributors were recruited to this edition, including Sir David Brewster, Thomas de Quincey, Antonio Panizzi and Robert Stephenson. December 2, 2014. Moreover, that same team of editors regularly revise and update existing articles to reflect new developments in those realms of knowledge. Only the short page, "Advertisement To The Sixth Edition", which was bound in volume 1 after the forward and dated January, 1822, set it apart. If the set is in good, clean condition, it can sell for as much as $400 per set. The vivid prose and easy navigation of the first edition led to strong demand for a second. Only digital copies were sold after 244 years. Can I sell old Encyclopedia Britannica? The preface to the third edition regards Macfarquhar as the editor of the first and second editions as well as of the first half of the third edition, but the preface to the Supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions says that Smellie edited the first. As in the first edition, some of the ordinary articles exceeded some of the treatises in length. At the end of this conversation, as coffee was served, Bill changed the subject and said to Wood, "General, don't you think it is rather unsuitable for a mail-order house to own the Encyclopdia Britannica, and isn't it even more unsuitable in wartime? The books you have were not actually printed in 1768, but The Encyclopdia Britannica was first published in 1768, when it began to appear in Edinburgh, Scotland. The supplement was completed in April 1824, consisting of 6 volumes with 4933 pages, 125 plates, 9 maps, 3 "dissertations" and 160 biographies, mainly of people who had died within the preceding 30 years. The population in developing countries will increase from 5.3 B to 7.8 B in 2050. Although not all encyclopedias succeeded commercially, their elements sometimes inspired future encyclopedias; for example, the failed two-volume A Universal History of Arts and Sciences of Dennis de Coetlogon (published 1745) grouped its topics into long self-contained treatises, an organization that likely inspired the "new plan" of the Britannica. For a full 32-volume print edition, the price is $1400. The advertising was clearly targeted at middle and lower-middle-class people seeking to improve themselves. The CEO of Sears Roebuck, philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, was devoted to the mission of the Britannica and bought its rights on 24 February 1920 from his friend Horace Everett Hooper for $1.25 million. March 14, 2012 In 1996, the Intel Corporation's Pentium Pro PC was able to execute 400,000,000 additions per second. [42] Goaded into action, the Britannica began to work on a new edition, the current 15th. #1 Can anyone tell me how much a set of World Book Encyclopedias cost in the early 1970's? We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations. The following account sketches the development of the Encyclopdia Britannica from its Scottish beginnings to its established position as a major English-language work of reference with editorial offices in Chicago and thousands of contributors worldwide. [19] Thomas Young's article on Egypt included the translation of the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone.[5][20]. This was to be accomplished with the magnificent 7th edition. A revised edition was published in 1803. (1764). And we can prove it.. Two books reprinted almost without change were John Bartlet, The Gentleman Farriers Repository, 5th ed. Other people alleged to have copied the 9th edition included John Wanamaker and the Reverend Isaac Kaufmann Funk of the Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia. the copyrighted articles are listed at the front of each volume of the Scribner's sets, The Publishers' Weekly No. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Theres no such thing as a bad questionbut there are bad answers, the site says. However, English-composed encyclopedias appeared in the 18th century, beginning with Lexicon technicum, or A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences by John Harris (two volumes, published 1704 and 1710, respectively), which contained articles by such contributors as Isaac Newton. [43] The Micropdia and Macropdia articles are listed in alphabetical order; the 4,287 contributors to the Macropdia articles are identified scrupulously, but the Micropdia articles are generally anonymous and unreferenced. In addition to the Edinburgh sets, more sets were authorized by Britannica to the London publishers Simpkin, Marshall and Company,[22] and to Little, Brown and Company of Boston. is found after his name in the 11th edition of Britannica in the article Encyclopedia, vol. The numbers were bound in three equally sized volumes covering AB, CL, and MZ; an estimated 3,000 sets were eventually sold, priced at 12pounds sterling apiece. 5. England had 71 pages of history up to 1603 and 3 pages on New England, and Rome had 135, whereas America (20 pages) discussed only geography and American Indians. Now, the Encyclopaedia Britannica will only be available in digital versions. Encyclopedias written for adults -- as opposed to children's sets -- cost thousands. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The full horror of what an American editorial monopoly entails is seldom appreciated. Try boxing up your encyclopedias and dropping them off at a local used bookstore. The article "America" reprinted the entire 81 pages of the 3rd edition, but appended 52 new pages after it, and an index for the 133-page article. Thus, in 1943, the wealthy and powerful William Benton, a former U.S. senator and advertising executive, obtained exclusive control of the Britannica, which he published until his death in 1973. This same arrangement would also be used for the 8th edition, but not the 9th. Sears Roebuck published the Britannica until 1943. To reproduce a foreign publication is not wrong. Thomson. The editors were J. L. Garvin in London and Franklin Henry Hooper in New York. [18] Legal disputes over the copyright of the 3rd edition supplements continued, however, and for this reason a new supplement was written by Constable's company, which was completed in 1824. They are usually less expensive than the adult. Only 4,000 are left in stock. Only 4,000 are left in stock. [4], The Eighth edition is a thorough revision, even more so than the Seventh. It does not have its own title page, but merely follows with pagination continuing from 8996 to 9200. Book Care and Conservation. Good riddance! It contained 30 volumes and 18,251 pages, with 8,500 photographs, maps, flags, and illustrations in smaller "compact" volumes. ", "Yes", replied General Wood, "Sears, Roebuck should never have acquired it in the first place. Although this edition has been faulted for its imperfect scholarship, Smellie argued that the Britannica should be given the benefit of the doubt: With regard to errors in general, whether falling under the denomination of mental, typographical or accidental, we are conscious of being able to point out a greater number than any critic whatever. It was sold to subscribers in monthly "parts" of around 133 pages each, at 6 shilling per part, with 6 parts combined into 800 page volumes for 36 shillings. Encyclopaedia Britannica cost $1400 for a full 32-volume print edition. [4] A & C Black had moved to London in 1895 and, on 9 May 1901, sold all the rights to the Britannica to Hooper and Jackson, then living in London. [4] By contrast, Dobson's work had various corrections and amendments for American readers. The machine cost only $4,400 in inflation-adjusted dollars. Charles Merivale, Dr. Joseph Dalton Hooker, Baron Robert Bunsen, Sir John Herschel, Professors Richard Owen, John Stuart Blackie and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). The entry for Abraham Lincoln, for example, offers me deals on a Discover Card, ultrasound tech training programs, auto insurance, Lenovo PCs, pretzel crisps, a weight loss product, a Google text ad for Lincoln cars, and Alamo auto rentals. In all, there were 344 contributors, including Lord Macaulay, Charles Kingsley, Robert Chambers, the Rev. It was either a door-to-door salesman or a hawker at the county fair who suckered my parents into buying the Encyclopedia Britannica. The supplement to the 3rd edition contained updates which were not included in it, and which had become dated themselves anyway, the 4th edition expanded the text somewhat but revised very little, and the 5th and 6th were just reprints of the 4th. When finished in 1784, complete sets were sold at Charles Elliot's book shop in Edinburgh for 10 pounds, unbound. The idea of Mortimer J. Adler was that the Propdia and the Micropdia could serve the role of an index. Only 4,000 are left in stock. But it did challenge comparison with all previous dictionaries of arts and sciences, large or small, because of its new plan. The 3rd edition is also famous for its bold article on "Motion", which erroneously rejects Isaac Newton's theory of gravitation. I dont know. Rather than releasing supplemental editions or volumes, new printings would be made every year with only enough copies made to cover the sales for that year. The last printing was in 2011. Its reliance on expert authority may yield mostly accurate information, but it teaches kids to believe everything they read. However, I strongly suspect that the seller is taking the piss and that no one will ever pay that much for them. [26] For example, one British critic wrote on the centenary of the sale:[30]. [4] By releasing the numbers in weekly instalments, the Britannica was completed in 1771, having 2,391 pages. In a promotional video, the companys editor-in-chief points out that over its history, some of the worlds most distinguished experts have contributed to Britannicaall the way from Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie to Bill Clinton, Chris Evert, Tony Hawk, Desmond Tutu, and many others.. And the attempting to enforce this by other acts of Parliament, penalties, and at last by military power, gave rise, as is well known, to the present revolt of our colonies. Recycling encyclopedias Call your local library and ask if you may donate your set to be sold. The 3rd edition began the tradition (continued to this day) of dedicating the Britannica to the reigning British monarch, then King George III. The Macropdia was also restricted somewhat from 19 volumes to the present 17 volumes. The landmark ninth edition, often called "the Scholar's Edition",[5] was published from January 1875 to 1889 in 25 volumes, with volume 25 the index volume. Superficially, the Propdia's Outline of Knowledge was simplified for easier use. Under Powell's leadership, the Britannica began to capitalize on its reputation by aggressively developing "spin-offs", such as the 12-volume Britannica Junior for children (published 1934, and revised to 15 volumes in 1947), the historical timeline The March of Man (published 1935, and edited by Albert Bushwell Hart, Isaac J. Cox and Lawrence H. Dawson), the Encyclopdia Britannica World Atlas (published 1942, and prepared by G. Donald Hudson) and 10 Eventful Years, a summary of the national and international events surrounding World War II (19371946). The first page of the supplement begins with the words "Appendix containing articles omitted and others further explained or improved, together with corrections of errors and of wrong references." How do I recycle old encyclopedias? For some articles, however, such as Aether and Abridgement, new content was written by William Smellie (174095), an Edinburgh printer hired to undertake 15 capital sciences, to write up the subdivisions and detached parts of these conform to your plan [sic] and likewise to prepare the whole work for the press. This (quoted from a letter to Smellie from Bell) implies that the new plan was Smellies idea. If you want to escape the ads, you have a few choices: Pay $70 a year for a subscription to the main encyclopedia, $130 a year for a subscription to the "learning bundle" (which includes a kids'. Nevertheless, Gleig was sanguine about the errors of the 3rd edition, echoing William Smellie's sentiment in the 1st edition quoted above: For perfection seems to be incompatible with the nature of works constructed on such a plan, and embracing such a variety of subjects. 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Maps, flags, and illustrations in smaller `` compact '' volumes believe news can and should expand a of... Who suckered my parents into buying the Encyclopedia Britannica 42 ] Goaded action!
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